Top six Russian airports see surge in international traffic flow

Despite the growing number of international flights, most people cross Russia’s border by car

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MOSCOW, May 28. /TASS/. Moscow’s air hub remains the country’s leader as far as international flight flows go but six big regional airports have also experienced an upsurge in international flights, Chief of the Federal Security Service’s Border Service Igor Shmotkin said in an interview ahead of the agency’s 100th anniversary.

"Airport checkpoints have been established in more than 60 Russian regions," he said. "Most of them are at the airports of Moscow and St. Petersburg, where 77% of international flights operate," Shmotkin highlighted.

At the same time, he added that "significant passenger flows have been recorded at checkpoints set up in Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo Airport and Novosibirsk’s Tolmachevo Airport, as well as at the airports of Kazan, Vladivostok, Samara and Krasnodar, each of them having served more than 700,000 passengers and 6,000 aircraft in 2017," the border service chief reported.

Despite the growing number of international flights, most people cross Russia’s border by car. "In 2017, people crossing the state border mostly travelled through roadway checkpoints (more than 76.8 mln - 52% of those passing the border) and airport ones (over 59 mln people, 40%)," Shmotkin pointed out. "Only five percent (about 7 mln) passed through rail checkpoints and another two percent (over 3.7 mln) used maritime checkpoints.